Fewer illegal signs found

Whether it's a cardboard sign blocking a traffic light, or directions to a garage sale on the side of the road — the placing of signs in public locations is illegal.Up to $500 and six months in jail illegal.Partly as an awareness event and inspired by the Keep Omaha Beautiful initiative, the Omaha Coalition of Citizen Patrols spent Sunday taking down signs for garage sales and lawn services, among other signs placed on public property without a permit.Public locations include parks, cemeteries, school yards and places or businesses intended for the public. Medians, utility poles, traffic-control signs and the strip between the sidewalk and curb are particular areas that Chris Costantakos, president of the Omaha Coalition of Citizen Patrols, and other coalition members were targeting Sunday.They are distracting for drivers, Costantakos said, and they “diminish the beauty of the city.”The coalition members estimate they have removed 400 signs each of the past three years, but on Sunday they took down or marked 150 signs in central Omaha, roughly between 42nd and 72nd Streets and Dodge and Center Streets. They had fewer volunteers participate this year, Costantakos said, but the reason for fewer signs collected could be that there weren't as many of them.